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Diamondback (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Willis Stryker, going under the alias Diamondback, is the main antagonist of the 2016 Marvel TV series Luke Cage's first season. He is a feared crime lord and weapons dealer. Throughout the first half of the season, Diamondback is merely an implied threat, who sends his henchman Shades to assist his close friend, Harlem crime lord Cottonmouth, in solving problems inside Cottonmouth's organization. After the death of Cottonmouth, Diamondback reveals himself. Having arrived in Harlem, Diamondback is only driven by his thirst for revenge and he starts hunting down Luke Cage, his half-brother and best friend from when they were younger. He was portrayed by Erik LaRay Harvey, who also portrayed Dunn Purnsley. Personality Willis Stryker grew up with Carl Lucas, the son of the respected reverend, James Lucas, and they became best friends despite Stryker's strong animosity towards Lucas due to being the illegitimate child and therefore not allowed the Lucas name whereas Carl was the supposed firstborn and revered for it. Despising this injustice for most of his life until his breaking point was when he was sent to prison yet Lucas was only forced to join the army for a crime they both committed, Stryker was overpowered by hatred and jealousy in captivity. He eventually became conniving, traitorous, calculating, manipulative, temperamental, unscrupulous, egotistical, compulsive, conceited, stubborn, haughty, arrogant, sarcastic, vindictive, obsessive, and ruthless to the point of insanity. Upon discovering that Lucas was not only alive but returned from Seagate Prison with superpowers, Stryker's hatred festered, citing that he was sentenced to Hell but was granted yet another miracle given to him from the God Stryker himself believed within so devotedly and wished to destroy his life the way Lucas destroyed his. After meeting with Luke Cage over years apart, the first he thing he does is reveal the secret that the two of them were brothers that he kept to himself for years and tormented Misty Knight upon discovering that she was close to Cage, only keeping her alive so he could torture his half-brother further before running his life. Once again, Stryker became deeply frustrated over Cage's idolization by the people of Harlem, having suffered for it his entire life, he framed him for the murder of an officer and a hostage crisis in Harlem's Paradise to destroy his legacy as a hero as was his name as a Lucas in the past. For all of his negative qualities, Stryker loved his sweet mother dearly as he wasn't there for her when she got cancer and died because he was imprisoned due to not being a Lucas and Reverend James simply stopped caring for her without Stryker being there, also greatly motivated his need for revenge. Stryker's ruthlessness and cutthroat demeanor extends to those whom he does business with, Mariah Dillard, Cottonmouth, Shades and Domingo Colon all seem to be submissive towards him and Stryker does not hesitate to kill the other mob bosses for purchasing Justin Hammer weapons from other buyers. Despite this Stryker regards loyalty in his allies very highly. He was prepared to kill Shades to avenge Stokes as he considered the latter to be friend, he spared Colon partly to send a message to the absent mob bosses, but also because Colon only purchase Hammer weapons from Stryker's "friend" and representative Stokes. He also showed some respect for Zip and Turk Barrett and was willing to trust Barrett whilst most do not, and are wise to do such. When Stokes' former enforcer Zip helped Stryker escape, Stryker asked if Zip had his own method of escape showing some form of concern. Whilst Stryker did not approve of Zip copying Shades's style, he briefly hinted that Zip should try and be his own man and even stated to like Zip, probably due to his loyalty to Stokes and Stryker. His misotheism seemed to enforce his revenge mission against Cage, quoting several bible verses that directly link to Cage's betrayal against Stryker within the theatre and to illustrate his point across multiple times. The Judas Bullet was designed to symbolize this act of treachery; stating "one Judas to another" before shooting Cage in the abdomen and vowing to repeat the same words that Cain said to his father after slewing Abel when he finally did kill Cage. Gallery DiamondbackApproaches.png|Diamondback approaches the wounded Cage DiamondbackAims.png|Diamondback attempts to shoot Cage DiamondbackHostage.png|Diamondback with Misty as hostage DiamondbackDefeated.png|Diamondback is defeated by Luke DiamondbackPursues.png|Diamondback pursues Luke CottonmouthBiggie.png|Diamondback in Cottonmouth's office, showing who's in charge DiamondbackWatches.png|Diamondback waits for Luke Cage DiamondbackHostage-0.png|Diamondback takes a hostage at the club DiamondbackPowerSuit.png|Diamondback in his power suit Trivia *Diamondback is similar to the following villains: **Kingpin from fellow Marvel show, Daredevil; They are both crime bosses who have authority over lesser crime lords, and they wind up defeated by the hero and arrested at the end. They also remained anonymous for the first half of the season before revealing themselves. **Ernst Stavro Blofeld from Spectre: They are related to the protagonist (Diamondback: Luke Cage, Blofeld: James Bond) and were using lesser criminal organizations to cause the heroes harm while maintaining their anonymity, but eventually revealed themselves. **Donquixote Doflamingo from One Piece: They are crime lords and arms dealers who have control of pretty much the entire criminal underworld, and are very intelligent and manipulative, and insane to boot; they ultimately get defeated by the hero, but not killed; they also adored their mothers and were crushed when they got sick and died, which was part of the reason they turned evil in the first place. **Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame released 20 years earlier: They are religious and dress in black, and they're also insane. They are also related to the protagonist but seek to kill them anyway. *For the first half of the season, Diamondback served as the Bigger Bad, as Cottonmouth was acting as the main antagonist at the time, and Diamondback was anonymous and only communicated with Cottonmouth through Shades. **Partly because of this, but mainly to hide Diamondback's role as the real villain, Erik LaRay Harvey agreed not to do any publicity for the show and had not been publicly credited until after the first season aired. *Diamondback bears a slight resemblance to the Candyman. *Diamondback is a huge fan of The Warriors and Friday; in fact, his first line is Luther's famous quote. *This interpretation of Diamondback is a composite of the mainstream comics version of Diamondback and the supervillain Coldfire; in the comics, Coldfire's identity was James Lucas Jr., the blood brother of Luke Cage, whereas Willis Stryker had no blood relation to Luke Cage. While their circumstances slightly differed, Coldfire's vendetta against Luke Cage directly parallels the MCU version of Diamondback. Navigation Category:Live Action Villains Category:TV Show Villains Category:Marvel Villains Category:Male Category:Crime Lord Category:Luke Cage Villains Category:Siblings Category:Tragic Category:Vengeful Category:Related to Hero Category:Sadists Category:Big Bads Category:Blackmailers Category:Lawful Evil Category:Incriminators Category:Liars Category:Murderer Category:Weapons Dealer Category:Greedy Category:Mastermind Category:Control Freaks Category:Charismatic Category:Failure-Intolerant Category:Gangsters Category:Fighters Category:Mongers Category:Imprisoned Category:Provoker Category:Delusional Category:Kidnapper Category:Terrorists Category:Oppressors Category:Evil Vs. 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